LONG BEACH >> In the wake of three officer-involved shootings in the span of a week, police Chief Jim McDonnell defended his department’s conduct Monday and said a thorough investigation is underway.

Long Beach police have been involved in 16 officer-involved shootings so far this year, up from nine in all of 2012, officials disclosed Monday.

Of this year’s officer-involved shootings, three involved a dog, one was an accidental weapon discharge, four involved suspects who where not hit, four involved hits that were nonfatal and four involved a suspect being killed, he said.

Seven officer-involved shootings in 2012 involved people, said Nancy Pratt, Police Department public information officer. One involved an animal and the last was an accidental discharge. It wasn’t clear how many of the shootings last year were fatal.

A department review board made up of McDonnell, his deputy chiefs, chiefs of staff and command officers investigates all officer-involved shootings or in-custody deaths within 72 hours, the chief said Monday.

“The goal we have there when we do this review is to be able to, in a rapid fashion, to be able to assess what went on in the incident ... and internally, are there any needs for training?” McDonnell said. “Are there needs for equipment modifications? Are there needs for policy or procedure modification, and to look at if there was a weapon issue, is that something that’s specific to that one officer’s weapon, or is it something that we need to look at department-wide.”

In years past, this review was done by a different board, but it was a lengthier process that could take from nine months to one year to complete, he said.

“We want to be able to jump on things like this as quickly as we can,” McDonnell said.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office conducts an independent investigation, he said. If a death is involved, the county Coroner’s Office also conducts its own investigation.

McDonnell also commented on Thursday’s shooting and death of John DelReal, a 39-year-old Long Beach resident who was killed by officers after reaching for what turned out to be a metal baseball bat in his pants.

“The officer in the field has sometimes a split second, sometimes a few seconds, to decide what to do,” he said. “The results are life or death, maybe their own.”

DelReal pulled at a “shiny object” before being shot be police, McDonnell said.

“That would not be inconsistent with somebody trying to pull a firearm out of a holster or out of a waistband,” he said.

On Wednesday, Long Beach police fatally shot Erick Balint, 32, after a pursuit into Carson. A woman reported he had made death threats against her family, and a gun battle between the man and police ensued.

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The third shooting occurred in Belmont Heights Saturday, when Greg Treadway, 49, was shot after breaking into a garage and stealing a gun, police said. Treadway survived.

The spate of officer-involved shootings also follow a YouTube video showing Long Beach police beating Porfirio Santos-Lopez with a baton and using a Taser on Sept. 2.

McDonnell praised the work done by police officers throughout the city and asked the public for their patience and cooperation as the investigations continue.

“While it may seem that we’re being evasive and not answering the questions ... part of that is because we don’t want to prejudge an incident,” he said. “When we’re out there at a scene in particular, it’s fluid ... when we have a call for service, as any patrol officer will be able to tell you, that’s really just a clue as to what you might find when you get to the scene.”

Robert Luna, deputy chief of the patrol bureau, stressed that the public should cooperate when approached by a police officer.